Preview: Wizard Chicago Comicon 2012

Chicago hosts yet another Comicon (formerly Wizard World Chicago). This one looks to be the best one yet with tons of great guests from TV, Comics, and Film making the trek out to windy city to schmooze the fans and separate them from their money. The convention runs Thursday through Sunday, August 9-12.

For those attending, here are a few highlights of what to expect…

Boondock Saints Cast Reunion

For the fans of the films, the main cast members will be dropping in on the con to talk about films past and maybe films to come. Actors Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery, and David Della Rocco will all be attending doing panels and generally hanging with the fans. They should all be appearing Saturday and Sunday.

The Captains

Avery Brooks (Star Trek Deep Space Nine), Scott Bakula (Star Trek Enterprise, Quantum Leap), and William Shatner (Star Trek TOS) will each be making appearances during Comicon weekend. Shatner and Brooks are mainstays of the Con scene and both know how to work a crowd. Bakula I’ve yet to meet so, this will be an interesting one to see. Both Shatner and Bakula will be appearing Friday, Saturday. Brooks will be there Thursday, Friday only.

James Hong

Probably best known to younger audiences as Ping, the adoptive father to Panda (Kungfu Panda). He’s even better known to us seasoned folks as the badass scorcerer Lo Pan who gives Kurt Russell a hard time in Big Trouble In Little China Town. (Editor: If someone gets that joke, send me a note) Lo Pan was likely the inspiration for Mortal Kombat’s Shang Tsung.

Hong is also a mainstay of Cons across the country and is as hilarious and endearing as the characters he plays on screen. He’ll have a role in the upcoming comic turned movie R.I.P.D so, any panel he does will likely include some revelation of details for the anticipated film.

Bruce Campbell

The Chin himself will be in attendance, albeit on Saturday only, but he’ll be around to do signings and panels and whatever else his premadonna self sees fit.

As in years past, we’ll be taking tons of pictures of the costumed fans and posting as many of the standouts as we can fit on one page. Stay tuned for that and in the mean time check out our coverage of Wizard Comicon the past for an idea of what to expect.